Few sign up for drug benefit

WASHINGTON – Far from the expected deluge, relatively few patients with cancer and other serious illnesses have applied for early Medicare prescription drug coverage.

The Bush administration was planning a lottery to determine who would get the 50,000 slots included in last year’s Medicare prescription drug law. Instead, just 6,364 people have applied for the head start on drug insurance for costly cancer medicines taken orally and self-injectable drugs for multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases.

The Medicare Web site now advises: “There are still many enrollment slots available!”

Patient advocates and physicians blame the low enrollment on several problems: The government scared off some people by using the term lottery and hasn’t publicized the program enough. In addition, it came up with an intimidating application for people with debilitating, life-threatening illnesses.

Medicare was planning two lotteries, the first in August to fill 5,000 slots. Instead, virtually all the 3,700 applicants were enrolled in the program. Officials set a second application deadline of Sept. 30.

The administration had expected tens of thousands of people such as 81-year-old Helen Curtis to step forward when it unveiled the new program in June. While many cancer drugs administered in doctors’ offices already are covered under Medicare, costly newer oral medicines and most drugs for other illnesses are not.

Curtis had been spending $560 for each shot of Abbott Laboratories’ Humira that she injects herself with every two weeks to relieve symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis – a cost that would reach $14,560 for a full year.

Since her coverage began Sept. 1, Curtis said she will pay $1,200 for the medicine for the rest of the year, amounting to less than $150 per injection.

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